Outland Mining - Flight 1217 - Blue Star Pirates

[Professor Mors]

The moments trickled down one by one. Doren tightened his grasp on the main weapons console, his thumbs taut over the missile triggers. The holographic sights of the main cockpit HUD slid closer and closer to the outline of the various freighters and wayward vessels. Just a little more. A few clicks, a smaller gap, it wouldn't be long now. The otherwise intense g-forces of the SLAM system pinned the Captain to the back of his seat, yet he felt no sense of restraint as he zeroed in on his unsuspecting opponents. In that martial instant, there was no space but that which lay ahead; no vector to travel but forward onto fiery vindication. As a red border lit up across the Proudclad's main viewport, Vassyl disengaged the sublight motor and threw his torso forward in sync with the rebuttal of the primary engine. Exhaling slowly, Doren depressed the innocuous crimson buttons hardwired to the firing controls, and sent two warheads spiraling towards the enemy convoy.

[Zechs Merquise]

Warheads. They were so unoriginal. What made it even more so was the fun Zechs realized was about to occur. It was this timing thing. It was all a matter of time. Time just ran out on them. They came. They sought. They'd try to destroy. They'd fail.

A stall had been given. The moment had passed. The warheads would too. Hyperdrives flared and off they went to their destination. It was a wag. It was a dodge. It was all a matter of timing. How things would have turned out differently if the initial pause in their trek had been a few micro-seconds quicker.

Instead, the warheads came. They sought. They passed through the faded reflection of their targets. Zechs and his buddy were a fraction of a second behind the main convoy. It was quick, but it got the job done. It wasn't like they needed perfect calculation. Even a quick jump would shake these pesky pests perched on this part of space.

Zechs was ready to stretch his legs. He was too old for this... fun.

[Annan Rainwalker]

YT-2000 light freighter Mahmudiye Scintillance
Near Abhean System, along Perlemian Trade Route

The Scintillance went on alert as Annan's sensors picked up the weapons locking onto them. O.M.5 began to flail widely with his three arms. <“Lemons stocking onto us, Lord Poggle! Inert, inert!”> screamed the glitchy droid, but Jedi Rainwalker understood quite well that O.M.5 meant to say 'weapons locking onto us, Annan! Alert, alert!' - for all his technical expertise, Annan could not work out that vocabulator glitch from the Clone Wars-era battle droid he had recycled into an RX-unit.

“Calm down, O.M.5!” Jedi Rainwalker ordered, and O.M.5. began to gain some control over his three appendages. A flare in the Force warned the Knight of the incoming warheads moments before the sensors on his console lit up with the warning. Annan punched the Shields to full power, and began to aim his own weapons at the warheads in an attempt to destroy them in vacuo before they ever within damaging range of the convoy.

<“WE HAVE THE SUBORDINATES! WE HAVE THE SUBORDINATES, LORD POGGLE!!!”> O.M.5 suddenly shouted, vocubulator raised to maximum volume, his three limbs following one another in punching the coordinates into the navicomputer so fast that even with his Jedi training, the Rainwalker thought he was seeing six appendages instead of three on his pilot droid.

Of course, he meant they had received the coordinates! Annan only realised that the moment he saw the warheads undergoing spaghettification through his viewscreen, as the stars surrounding them elongated into white streaks a mere moment before they were replaced by the blue plasma clouds of hyperspace.

#
YT-2000 light freighter Mahmudiye Scintillance
Hyperspace, along Perlemian Trade Route

Jedi Rainwalker immediately placed a robotic finger on the comm button. “Zulara, this is Ani, can you read me?! Are you safe!?”

“Loud and clear, Baby-Ann,” came the feminine voice over the comm. “I was actually worried about you, I was sure you hadn't made the jump to hyperspace when we had,” she explained. “I am right astarboard of Outland 01... I believe we all made it out in one piece.”

Ani let escape a breath he had been holding and sank back deep into the co-pilot's seat. No longer concentrating upon the Force, he immediately felt the surge of exhaustion - mostly mental exhaustion - wash over him. That had indeed been quite a close call.

[Master Buggie]

Buggie hopscotched over the back of the co-pilot's seat after he hurried back onto the heavy freighter's bridge. Immediately taking over shield controls from Storm in order to allow the former Antarian Ranger to concentrate on steering the transport away from the enemy, Buggie began to angle the deflector shields toward the incoming Imperial starfighters. It would be only a matter of time before the convoy was within missile range. Based upon experience, Buggie knew that the side profile of the large transports presented a prime target for the Imperial patrol that the convoy had stumbled upon. If the enemies could disable the transports' shields with a well-placed missile, Buggie and Storm would be nearly defenseless to stop them from boarding and claiming the supplies in the hold for themselves. A quick glance to the sensor readings told Buggie that the YT-1300 and YT-2000 transports were maneuvering into position alongside the transports, no doubt ready to use their turrets to the Outland group's defense. It was a small relief upon Buggie's mind that the YT-series transports had joined the convoy; they offered small cargo holds, but turrets could be deadly in the hands of a skilled gunner.

A shrill tone sounded throughout the bridge, indicating multiple missile launches.

"Come on droid," Storm urged, "Now or never!"

As if on cue, the droid emitted a series of low tones, indicating that it had completed the calculations for a short microjump, which were currently being tight-beamed to the remainder of the convoy. A complex jump was not necessary at this stage; anything to get the convoy away from the Empire would be satisfactory.

With the jump calculations uploaded to the navicomputer, Storm latched onto the hyperdrive initiator and wrenched it down, sending the Outland 01 and Outland 02 into hyperspace. As the stars played out before them and the viewports opaqued, Buggie and Storm breathed a sigh of relief. They had escaped yet again, though they were still far out from their destination. If fortune was on their side, the microjump being followed by a more complex jump along the Perlemian would be just what the convoy needed to avoid further Imperial complications on their way to the Alliance's prized system.